Aruba announced the deal on Thursday as it reported financial results for its first fiscal quarter ended Oct. 31. Pending regulatory approvals, Aruba expects the acquisition to close during the second quarter of its 2012 fiscal year, which ends Jan. 31.

The acquisition of privately held Avenda, for which the companies did not disclose financial terms, is intended primarily to help serve enterprises that want to let their employees bring their own smartphones and tablets to work. To safely do so, employers need to ensure that those devices are secure and comply with enterprise policies.

Avenda sells an authentication and authorization platform, called eTIPS, that includes a server and a set of applications. With that technology, Aruba said it will be able to extend its own MOVE access control architecture to all access types and other vendors' network gear. MOVE can identify users, device types, applications and locations, and apply network access policies using that information.

Avenda's technology also includes locally deployed or cloud-based software to make it easier for users to connect their mobile devices to secure Wi-Fi networks without help from the IT department. The software works on many Windows, Mac OS, Apple iOS and Google Android client systems.

Aruba plans to hold a conference call about the acquisition for media on Friday at 7 a.m. Pacific Time. Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and Avenda in nearby Santa Clara.

For its fiscal first quarter, Aruba reported revenue of US$119.4 million, up 44 percent from a year earlier, but a net loss of $500,000, or roughly break-even. In last year's first quarter, the company had posted a profit of $2.1 million, or $0.02 per share.